Rhetoric & Technical Communication
Rhetoric & Technical Communication
Aaron A. Toscano, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Dept. of English

Resources and Daily Activities

  • Charlotte Debate
  • Conference Presentations
    • Critical Theory/MRG 2023 Presentation
    • PCA/ACA Conference Presentation 2022
    • PCAS/ACAS 2024 Presentation
    • PCAS/ACAS Presentation 2021
    • SAMLA 2024 Presentation
    • SEACS 2021 Presentation
    • SEACS 2022 Presentation
    • SEACS 2023 Presentation
    • SEACS 2024 Presentation
    • SEACS 2025 Presentation
    • SEWSA 2021 Presentation
    • South Atlantic MLA Conference 2022
  • Dr. Toscano’s Homepage
  • ENGL 2116-014: Introduction to Technical Communication
    • April 10th: Analyzing Ethics
      • Ethical Dilemmas for Homework
      • Ethical Dilemmas to Ponder
      • Mapping Our Personal Ethics
    • April 12th: Writing Ethically
    • April 17th: Ethics Continued
    • April 19th: More on Ethics in Writing and Professional Contexts
    • April 24th: Mastering Oral Presentations
    • April 3rd: Research Fun
    • April 5th: More Research Fun
      • Epistemology and Other Fun Research Ideas
      • Research
    • February 13th: Introduction to User Design
    • February 15th: Instructions for Users
      • Making Résumés and Cover Letters More Effective
    • February 1st: Reflection on Workplace Messages
    • February 20th: The Rhetoric of Technology
    • February 22nd: Social Constructions of Technology
    • February 6th: Plain Language
    • January 11th: More Introduction to Class
    • January 18th: Audience & Purpose
    • January 23rd: Résumés and Cover Letters
      • Duty Format for Résumés
      • Peter Profit’s Cover Letter
    • January 25th: More on Résumés and Cover Letters
    • January 30th: Achieving a Readable Style
      • Euphemisms
      • Prose Practice for Next Class
      • Prose Revision Assignment
      • Revising Prose: Efficiency, Accuracy, and Good
      • Sentence Clarity
    • January 9th: Introduction to the Class
    • Major Assignments
    • March 13th: Introduction to Information Design
    • March 15th: More on Information Design
    • March 20th: Reporting Technical Information
    • March 27th: The Great I, Robot Analysis
    • May 1st: Final Portfolio Requirements
  • ENGL 4182/5182: Information Design & Digital Publishing
    • August 21st: Introduction to the Course
      • Rhetorical Principles of Information Design
    • August 28th: Introduction to Information Design
      • Prejudice and Rhetoric
      • Robin Williams’s Principles of Design
    • Classmates Webpages (Fall 2017)
    • December 4th: Presentations
    • Major Assignments for ENGL 4182/5182 (Fall 2017)
    • November 13th: More on Color
      • Designing with Color
      • Important Images
    • November 20th: Extra-Textual Elements
    • November 27th: Presentation/Portfolio Workshop
    • November 6th: In Living Color
    • October 16th: Type Fever
      • Typography
    • October 23rd: More on Type
    • October 2nd: MIDTERM FUN!!!
    • October 30th: Working with Graphics
      • Beerknurd Calendar 2018
    • September 11th: Talking about Design without Using “Thingy”
      • Theory, theory, practice
    • September 18th: The Whole Document
    • September 25th: Page Design
  • ENGL 4183/5183: Editing with Digital Technologies
    • August 23rd: Introduction to the Class
    • August 30th: Rhetoric, Words, and Composing
    • December 6th: Words and Word Classes
    • Major Assignments for ENGL 4183/5183 (Fall 2023)
    • November 15th: Cohesive Rhythm
    • November 1st: Stylistic Variations
    • November 29th: Voice and Other Nebulous Writing Terms
      • Rhetoric of Fear (prose example)
    • November 8th: Rhetorical Effects of Punctuation
    • October 11th: Choosing Adjectivals
    • October 18th: Choosing Nominals
    • October 4th: Form and Function
    • September 13th: Verb is the Word!
    • September 27th: Coordination and Subordination
      • Parallelism
    • September 6th: Sentence Patterns
  • ENGL 4275/WRDS 4011: “Rhetoric of Technology”
    • April 23rd: Presentation Discussion
    • April 2nd: Artificial Intelligence Discussion, machine (super)learning
    • April 4th: Writing and Reflecting Discussion
    • April 9th: Tom Wheeler’s The History of Our Future (Part I)
    • February 13th: Religion of Technology Part 3 of 3
    • February 15th: Is Love a Technology?
    • February 1st: Technology and Postmodernism
    • February 20th: Technology and Gender
    • February 22nd: Technology, Expediency, Racism
    • February 27th: Writing Workshop, etc.
    • February 6th: The Religion of Technology (Part 1 of 3)
    • February 8th: Religion of Technology (Part 2 of 3)
    • January 11th: Introduction to the Course
    • January 16th: Isaac Asimov’s “Cult of Ignorance”
    • January 18th: Technology and Meaning, a Humanist perspective
    • January 23rd: Technology and Democracy
    • January 25th: The Politics of Technology
    • January 30th: Discussion on Writing as Thinking
    • Major Assignments for Rhetoric of Technology
    • March 12th: Neuromancer (1984) Day 1 of 3
    • March 14th: Neuromancer (1984) Day 2 of 3
    • March 19th: Neuromancer (1984) Day 3 of 3
    • March 21st: Writing and Reflecting: Research and Synthesizing
    • March 26th: Artificial Intelligence and Risk
    • March 28th: Artificial Intelligence Book Reviews
  • ENGL 6166: Rhetorical Theory
    • April 11th: Knoblauch. Ch. 4 and Ch. 5
    • April 18th: Feminisms, Rhetorics, Herstories
    • April 25th:  Knoblauch. Ch. 6, 7, and “Afterword”
    • April 4th: Jacques Derrida’s Positions
    • February 15th: St. Augustine’s On Christian Doctrine [Rhetoric]
    • February 1st: Aristotle’s On Rhetoric, Book 2 & 3
      • Aristotle’s On Rhetoric, Book 2
      • Aristotle’s On Rhetoric, Book 3
    • February 22nd: Knoblauch. Ch. 1 and 2
    • February 29th: Descartes, Rene, Discourse on Method
    • February 8th: Isocrates
    • January 11th: Introduction to Class
    • January 18th: Plato’s Phaedrus
    • January 25th: Aristotle’s On Rhetoric, Book 1
    • March 14th: Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Women
    • March 21st: Feminist Rhetoric(s)
    • March 28th: Knoblauch’s Ch. 3 and More Constitutive Rhetoric
    • Rhetorical Theory Assignments
  • ENGL/COMM/WRDS: The Rhetoric of Fear
    • April 11th: McCarthyism Part 1
    • April 18th: McCarthyism Part 2
    • April 25th: The Satanic Panic
    • April 4th: Suspense/Horror/Fear in Film
    • February 14th: Fascism and Other Valentine’s Day Atrocities
    • February 21st: Fascism Part 2
    • February 7th: Fallacies Part 3 and American Politics Part 2
    • January 10th: Introduction to the Class
    • January 17th: Scapegoats & Conspiracies
    • January 24th: The Rhetoric of Fear and Fallacies Part 1
    • January 31st: Fallacies Part 2 and American Politics Part 1
    • Major Assignments
    • March 28th: Nineteen Eighty-Four
    • March 7th: Fascism Part 3
    • May 2nd: The Satanic Panic Part II
      • Rhetoric of Fear and Job Losses
  • Intercultural Communication on the Amalfi Coast
    • Pedagogical Theory for Study Abroad
  • LBST 2213-110: Science, Technology, and Society
    • August 22nd: Science and Technology from a Humanistic Perspective
    • August 24th: Science and Technology, a Humanistic Approach
    • August 29th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem (Science), Ch. 2
    • August 31st: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem (Science), Ch. 3 and 4
    • December 5th: Video Games and Violence, a more nuanced view
    • November 14th: Boulle, Pierre. Planet of the Apes. (1964) Ch. 27-end
    • November 16th: Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. 1818. Preface-Ch. 8
    • November 21st: Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. 1818. Ch. 9-Ch. 16
    • November 28th: Shelley, Mary. Frankenstein. Ch. 17-Ch. 24
    • November 30th: Violence in Video Games
    • November 7th: Boulle, Pierre. Planet of the Apes Ch. 1-17
    • November 9th: Boulle, Pierre. Planet of the Apes, Ch. 18-26
    • October 12th: Lies Economics Tells
    • October 17th: Brief Histories of Medicine, Salerno, and Galen
    • October 19th: Politicizing Science and Medicine
    • October 24th: COVID-19 Facial Covering Rhetoric
    • October 26th: Wells, H. G. Time Machine. Ch. 1-5
    • October 31st: Wells, H. G. The Time Machine Ch. 6-The End
    • October 3rd: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem at Large (Technology), Ch. 7 and Conclusion
    • September 12th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem (Science), Ch. 7 and Conclusion
    • September 19th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem at Large (Technology), Prefaces and Ch. 1
    • September 26th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem at Large (Technology), Ch. 2
    • September 28th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem at Large (Technology), Ch. 5 and 6
    • September 7th: Collins & Pinch’s The Golem (Science), Ch. 5 and 6
  • New Media: Gender, Culture, Technology
    • August 19: Introduction to the Course
    • August 21: More Introduction
    • August 26th: Consider Media-ted Arguments
    • August 28th: Media & American Culture
    • November 13th: Hank Green’s An Absolutely Remarkable Thing, Part 3
    • November 18th: Feminism’s Non-Monolithic Nature
    • November 20th: Compulsory Heterosexuality
    • November 25th: Presentation Discussion
    • November 4: Hank Green’s An Absolutely Remarkable Thing, Part 1
    • November 6: Hank Green’s An Absolutely Remarkable Thing, Part 2
    • October 16th: No Class Meeting
    • October 21: Misunderstanding the Internet, Part 1
    • October 23: Misunderstanding the Internet, Part 2
    • October 28: The Internet, Part 3
    • October 2nd: Hauntology
    • October 30th: Social Construction of Sexuality
    • October 7:  Myth in American Culture
    • September 11: Critical Theory
    • September 16th: Social Construction of Gender and Sexuality
    • September 18th: Postmodernism, Part 1
    • September 23rd: Postmodernism, Part 2
    • September 25th: Postmodernism, Part 3
    • September 30th: Capitalist Realism
    • September 4th: The Medium is the Message!
    • September 9: The Public Sphere
  • Science Fiction and American Culture
    • April 10th: Octavia Butler’s Dawn (Parts III and IV)
    • April 15th: The Dispossessed (Part I)
    • April 17th: The Dispossessed (Part II)
    • April 1st: Interstellar (2014)
    • April 22nd: In/Human Beauty
    • April 24: Witch Hunt Politics (Part I)
    • April 29th: Witch Hunt Politics (Part II)
    • April 3rd: Catch Up and Start Octavia Butler
    • April 8th: Octavia Butler’s Dawn (Parts I and II)
    • February 11: William Gibson, Part II
    • February 18: Use Your Illusion I
    • February 20: Use Your Illusion II
    • February 25th: Firefly and Black Mirror
    • February 4th: Writing Discussion: Ideas & Arguments
    • February 6th: William Gibson, Part I
    • January 14th: Introduction to to “Science Fiction and American Culture”
    • January 16th: More Introduction
    • January 21st: Robots and Zombies
    • January 23rd: Gender Studies and Science Fiction
    • January 28th: American Studies Introduction
    • January 30th: World’s Beyond
    • March 11th: All Systems Red
    • March 13th: Zone One (Part 1)
      • Zone One “Friday”
    • March 18th: Zone One, “Saturday”
    • March 20th: Zone One, “Sunday”
    • March 25th: Synthesizing Sources; Writing Gooder
      • Writing Discussion–Outlines
    • March 27th: Inception (2010)
  • Teaching Portfolio
  • Topics for Analysis
    • A Practical Editing Situation
    • American Culture, an Introduction
    • Cultural Studies and Science Fiction Films
    • Efficiency in Writing Reviews
    • Feminism, An Introduction
    • Fordism/Taylorism
    • Frankenstein Part I
    • Frankenstein Part II
    • Futurism Introduction
    • How to Lie with Statistics
    • How to Make an Argument with Sources
    • Isaac Asimov’s “A Cult of Ignorance”
    • Judith Butler, an Introduction to Gender/Sexuality Studies
    • Langdon Winner Summary: The Politics of Technology
    • Oral Presentations
    • Oratory and Argument Analysis
    • Our Public Sphere
    • Postmodernism Introduction
    • Protesting Confederate Place
    • Punctuation Refresher
    • QT, the Existential Robot
    • Religion of Technology Discussion
    • Rhetoric, an Introduction
      • Analyzing the Culture of Technical Writer Ads
      • Rhetoric of Technology
      • Visual Culture
      • Visual Perception
      • Visual Perception, Culture, and Rhetoric
      • Visual Rhetoric
      • Visuals for Technical Communication
      • World War I Propaganda
    • The Great I, Robot Discussion
      • I, Robot Short Essay Topics
    • The Rhetoric of Video Games: A Cultural Perspective
      • Civilization, an Analysis
    • The Sopranos
    • Why Science Fiction?
    • Zombies and Consumption Satire
  • Video Games & American Culture
    • April 14th: Phallocentrism
    • April 21st: Video Games and Neoliberalism
    • April 7th: Video Games and Conquest
    • Assignments for Video Games & American Culture
    • February 10th: Aesthetics and Culture
    • February 17th: Narrative and Catharsis
    • February 24th: Serious Games
    • February 3rd: More History of Video Games
    • January 13th: Introduction to the course
    • January 20th: Introduction to Video Game Studies
    • January 27th: Games & Culture
      • Marxism for Video Game Analysis
      • Postmodernism for Video Game Analysis
    • March 24th: Realism, Interpretation(s), and Meaning Making
    • March 31st: Feminist Perspectives and Politics
    • March 3rd: Risky Business?

Contact Me

Office: Fretwell 255F
Email: atoscano@uncc.edu
Science Fiction and American Culture » January 30th: World’s Beyond

January 30th: World’s Beyond

Plan for the Day

  • Back to Edward Said’s Orientalism (1/23’s class notes)
  • Weinbaum’s “A Martian Odyssey” (4:30pm)
  • Samuel R. Delany:
    • “Aye, and Gomorrah”
    • “Racism and Science Fiction”
  • Essay #1 on American Culture due 2/13 on Canvas…

The Alien Other and Worlds Beyond

Both stories for today deal with the alien other: a being or beings that aren’t of our world. We’ve already met aliens in our readings, but these two stories–although different–share a common theme related to the alien other. Although this could be argued about any sci fi alien encounter, today’s stories ask readers to consider what it means to be human in contrast to alien behavior. Weinbaum’s story has the main character, Jarvis, explaining Tweel’s extraterrestrial logic in contrast to human tendencies for generalizations. Delany’s story is the more satirical one and uses the scifi genre to play with gender roles. While not alien, readers in 1967 would be familiar with the Spacers as “other.”

When confronting the alien other, humanity is relative.

Stanley G. Weinbaum’s “A Martian Odyssey” (1934)

This story is one of the many that editor John W. Campbell helped coach the author on. Asimov’s early career in science fiction would have gotten nowhere (well, most likely not as early a start) without the support of Campbell. He was important for Asimov’s thinking on the Three Laws of Robotics.

Let’s consider some surface features of the story before going under the surface and interpreting between the lines (yes, this parallels the narrative where Jarvis and Tweel walk on the Martian surface then go underground and find the cure-all egg). We’ll move from this to an analysis based on Weinbaum’s life and then on to a cultural-historical interpretation.

The Excitement of a Desolate Martian Surface

Mars doesn’t seem all that exciting, does it? It’s practically a barren wasteland with dangerous and goofy creatures, an environment with severe temperature fluctuations much like deserts on Earth. But, just like the Mojave Desert, you can find an oasis. Jarvis and Tweel don’t find Las Vegas,* but they do find creatures that defy explanation and survive on different chemical composition needs. What could we say about the brick-laying silica creature building pyramids forever (pp. 149-150)?
*Speaking of Las Vegas, at the Treasure Island, there used to be a show called Sirens of TI, and, on the surface of Mars, there are these siren-like creatures that lure unsuspecting hikers to them and then eat them. Jarvis called them dream beasts and he was shown a vision of Fancy Long–a New York dancer (c.f. Jean Harlow “The Sex Siren”). Even in the future, there are female go-go dancers entertaining men. What can we say about the role of women here in conjunction with last class’s discussion on fetishizing aliens?

Common images from Science Fiction Magazines

  • Avon Fantasy Reader
  • Fantastic Adventures
  • Future
  • Analog Science Fiction and Fact (went through name changes over the years)
  • Space Science Fiction
    • Notice the issue cover Wikipedia uses…
  • Weird Tales

Humans have always been fascinated by the tales of exploration. Long before our mass media technologies that beam “instant” news to us and even long before the printing press, humans told stories about explorers going to distant lands–some were based on actual exploration like Marco Polo’s travels to Asia, and some were based on mythology like Homer’s Odyssey about Odysseus’s (Ulysses in Roman mythology) journey back from the Trojan Wars to Ithaca (in upstate New York–just kidding). Weinbaum’s story contains all the components for an exciting adventure story:

  • A sidekick he saves and who travels with him
    • For more sidekick tropes, review this page.
  • Bizarre creatures unknown to the adventurer
  • New civilizations and battle–need to fight to get home safely
  • Treasure or products of value

Because it’s a short story, we’re able to get through it much quicker than Lord of the Rings and The Odyssey. The characters make reference to the public’s assumed excitement about their journey when Harrison laments “I wish you’d saved the films, though. They’d have paid the cost of this junket; remember how the public mobbed the first moon pictures?” (p. 138). The American public consumed video and audio of the actual moon landing, but they had been consuming tales of adventure throughout its history: Lewis & Clarke’s Expedition, Cook & Peary’s North Pole excursion, and Admundsen’s trip to the South Pole.

The Desire to Transcend One’s Time

Even though we can’t assume the author’s point of view is the only factor for interpretation, we shouldn’t ignore connections to the author’s life. Weinbaum, like many sci fi or creative writers generally, might have been writing to indulge in other worlds and situations because he had a longing for something incomplete in his life. AGAIN, THIS ISN’T THE INTERPRETATION OF ALL HIS WORKS, but it is a plausible one. Weinbaum also wrote romance stories and a collection of stories about a scientist looking for a lover, who is ultimately lost. The theme of searching is apparent in his work and possibly drove his imagination and, therefore, his writing. A series of stories he wrote dealt with Dixon Wells, who was a student and later assistant to the great Haskel Van Manderpootz (they have a Sherlock Holmes and Watson-type relationship): “The Worlds of If” (1935), “The Ideal” (1935), and “The Point of View” (1936-posthumusly published). In the beginning of “The Point of View” Dixon Wells laments the trials and tribulations of finding the woman of his dreams:

There was the affair of the subjunctivisor, for instance, and also that of the idealizator; in the first of these episodes I had suffered the indignity of falling in love with a girl two weeks after she was apparently dead, and in the second, the equal or greater indignity of falling in love with a girl who didn’t exist, never had existed, and never would exist–in other words, with an ideal. Perhaps I’m a little susceptible to feminine charms, or rather, perhaps I used to be, for since the disaster of the idealizator, I have grimly relegated such follies to the past, much to the disgust of various vision entertainers, singers, dancers, and the like. (para. 6)

We learn at the end of “The Point of View” that Dixon Wells eventually falls in love with another man’s wife, an unattainable love. Interestingly, Jarvis calls Fancy Long “a vision entertainer” in “A Martian Odyssey” (p. 151). The implication is that she, too, is unattainable and acts as a fantasy for the character (and men in general).

Also, Weinbaum died of throat (or lung) cancer shortly after this story was published. He was born and died in Louisville, KY…home of the 2013 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Champions. Again, I caution you against reading authors’ works as a lead up to their final moments (even authors who committed suicide didn’t write incessantly about their eventual suicides), but the fact that the characters mention the possibility to cure cancer with the egg (p. 159) is important. That’s not just Weinbaum’s concern in 1934-1935; even today, groups raise money and awareness on cancer in hopes that one day a cure will be found.

Historical-Cultural Interpretation

Here’s a rundown of the characters on this 21st-Century Martian expedition:

  • Jarvis–possibly the American, reminiscent of a frontiersman
  • Harrison–American or British Captain, incredulous to Jarvis’s tale
  • Putz–definitely German, the engineer
  • Leroy–definitely French, the biologist
  • Tweel (Tweerl)–Jarvis’s alien sidekick he saves
    • p. 144: Jarvis on Tweel–“Our minds simply looked at the world from different viewpoints, and perhaps his viewpoint is as true as ours.”
    • In Weinbaum’s story “Valley of Dreams”–the sequel to this one–readers learn that Tweel’s race is the Thoth, who visited the ancient Egyptians and brought the gift of writing.
    • Cover of The Best of Stanley G. Weinbaum (1974)

This crew of Europeans and, presumably, Americans reflects the colonial aspirations Western nations had in the first half of the 20th Century. Of course, other nations had (and still have) these aspirations. Additionally, connecting the adventure aspects of the story to European conquistadors, we can read how for quite some time Western culture assumed that riches could be found in far away lands. Whether it’s Aztec/Inca gold or the fabled Fountain of Youth, the culturally held assumption (or fascination) is that discoveries in other lands could be of value. It’s no surprise that we call scientific and technological breakthroughs “discoveries” even though they aren’t found. Jarvis stealing the cure-all Martian “egg” alludes to colonial patterns of exploitation.

More Questions to consider:

  • Which is the most mythical character? Consider the title of the short story…and I mean the word “Odyssey” in the title.
  • Which character is the most traditionally science fiction? Fantasy character?
  • What does the return home suggest?

Specific passages to discuss:

  • p. 137: “The Ares expedition, first human beings to set foot on the…planet Mars.”
  • p. 137: Mad scientists and Atomic Power (history of nuclear power)
    • “the mad American Doheny perfected the atomic blast at the cost of his life”
    • “only a decade after the equally mad Cardoza rode on it to the moon”
      • Dr. Strangelove…
  • p. 139: “[Jarvis]…took a cartridge belt and revolver…”
    • Theoretically, you can shoot a gun on Mars, and it will travel farther than on Earth.
    • There’s too little oxygen, however, to build a fire.
  • p. 143: Language barriers
    • Tweel used a version of addition to compare like and unlike and similar things
    • pp. 143-144: Jarvis says, “Well, there we were. We could exchange ideas up to a certain point, and then–blooey! Something in us was different, unrelated; I don’t doubt that Tweel thought me just as screwy as I thought him.”
  • p. 153: Tweel’s weapon “did hold as many shots as a cowboy’s gun in a Western movie.”
  • p. 157: Those pushcart creatures really live (and die) for their work…

Gender Studies from Judith Butler

Judith Butler is a major gender theorist. She points out that gender is instituted (as opposed to innately felt) through acts that make us believe gender is natural. I’m selectively pulling out some quotations from her most famous essay “Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory” (1988):

  • p. 154: “gender is in no way a stable identity or locus of agency from which various acts proceed; rather, it is an identity tenuously constituted in time–an identity instituted through a stylized repetition of acts.”
    • “if gender is instituted through acts which are internally discontinuous, then the appearance of substance is precisely that, a constructed identity, a performative accomplishment which the mundane social audience, including the actors themselves, come to believe and to perform.”
  • p. 155: “what is called gender identity is a performative accomplishment compelled by social sanction and taboo.”
  • Refering to Simone de Beauvoir: “gender is an historical situation rather than a natural fact.”

Focus on Gender and Sexuality

We’re going to return to this topic throughout the semester, so I figured I should bring up some points that aren’t obvious on a first reading of “Aye, and Gomorrah…” and “All You Zombies–.” What I was hoping to convey to you last week was to radically rethink not just hegemonic notions of sexuality (i.e. heteronormativity) but also assumptions of sexual activity. We seem to define people based on their romantic proclivities, but we don’t often recognize people who have no or little desire: asexual is the “A” in LGBTQIA+. Also, heterosexism, usually defined as the belief that ONLY male-female coupling is appropriate, tends to consider its practice as normal and all others as deviant. Even people who assume they’re “gay friendly” may hyperfocus on sexuality being a person’s dominant identity. Consider the following scenarios:

  • Hetero “friends” pointing out individuals who must be of interest: “wouldn’t you like him?”
  • A gay couple leaves a group and is told “be safe,” which is a pathologizing frame related to HIV/AIDS.
  • The F/fascist belief that the LGBTQIA+ community is inherently immoral and will groom children.

In Delany’s “Aye, and Gomorrah,” the Spacer narrator goes off with a woman, assuming she’ll pay him* for sex. She claims:

  • “You don’t choose your perversions. You have no perversions at all. You’re free of the whole business. I love you for that, Spacer. My love starts with the fear of love.”
    • Think about the assumptions loaded in her statement: “You have no perversions at all.”
    • This reinforces the idea that sexuality governs a person’s entire identity.
    • Again, if heterosexuality is dominant, everything else is abnormal.
  • “I want you because you can’t want me. That’s the pleasure.”
    • She uses him in a peculiar way here.
    • Could Delany be commenting on “the game”?
  • “When you leave, I am going to visit my friends and talk about . . . ah, yes, the beautiful one that got away.”

*The narrator answers “Male….It doesn’t matter” when the woman he meets asks, “Did you start out male or female?” (p. 410).

Sexual Politics

Don’t worry, you’re not going to be asked to vote. Earlier on I mentioned that we would discuss the difference between Big-P “Politics” and little-p “politics,” and today seems like it’s a good time. Traditionally, you associate “politics” with governing the country, and that’s a good definition, which I’ll refer to as Big-P (think Democrats and Republicans). However, what’s more useful for us is the following definition: “the total complex of relations between people living in society” (“politics” 5a, Merriam-Webster).

Consider the following sexual relations between people:

  • Dating, marriage, and divorce (a popular sociology class)
  • Hegemonic patriarchy
    • conquests
    • locker room talk
    • hypermasculinity
  • Fabrication (the rule of three, half truths, “my buddy is such a scum bag…”)
  • Contradiction: American cultural obsession and repression

You probably know of some unwritten rules that relate to the situations and concepts above. Think about dating? What traditional practices come to mind?

Samuel R. Delany’s “Aye, and Gomorrah…” (1967)

Here’s the synopsis: This peculiar short story takes place in the future, an imagined (possibly) 21st-Century future of the mid-to-late 1960s. The narrative revolves around four Spacers, space workers who’ve been neutered–not just sterilized–before puberty, so they can work in dangerous areas of space where radiation would harm their reproductive capacity. Delany’s story also shows that this early neutering leaves the individual with an androgynous result–it’s difficult for others to determine the neuter’s sex as an adult. But just like the Axe Body Wash and Deodorant commercials, these Spacers (astronauts) are lusted after by the ‘frelks’. As the Anthology editors mention, the frelks are into the Spacers even though the Spacers don’t have sex drives–it’s a fetish because it’s impossible to arouse them (p. 405). When the Spacers visit Earth between work (going up and down), they sometimes prostitute themselves to the frelk groupies.

Questions:

What are base assumptions about sexuality? What does “biology is destiny” mean?

Historical Context

Delany himself points out that this was written before the Stonewall riots, which is considered the first “event” of the modern Gay Rights movement. Many homosexuals were in the closet during this period, and there were almost no obvious popular culture references to homosexuality in American culture. The 1960s, however, was a time of social upheaval. In addition to the many anti-war and student (counter culture) riots/movements, there was a sexual revolution that sought to throw away the prescribed puritanical morality of patriarchal culture.

Romance

Yes, in a way, this is a romance story, but it’s probably ironic–there’s an incongruity between what’s expected in a love story and the outcome of this one where the narrator prostitutes himself in order to feel connected to someone. This is an interesting take on the traditional prostitution narrative of the older john looking for a connection with a prostitute he pays for, but she (usually a woman) is doing it just for the money. The spacers might be doing it because they can’t feel a full connection to others and exist in a gender borderland–not quite male and not quite female; not quite homosexual and not quite heterosexual.

There’s another component to this “romance” story: perversion. Delany himself comments on the possibility that the encounter between the narrator and the Turkish college student is a look into perversion. But what exactly is perversion? It’s sexual gratification/desire that’s not part of the mainstream–phallocentric, heteronormative sex. If we read this story ironically, we recognize that a perversion of sex is the inability to have a mutually pleasurable experience. Spacers just do it for money and the need to fill a void in their lives; the frelks do it because it’s some kind of game.

Biblical Allusion

The title obviously refers to the story of Sodom and Gomorrah in the Old Testament. The two cities were destroyed as punishment for engaging in all kinds of “perversions.” Delany, who identifies as gay, certainly doesn’t think homosexuality is wrong, so why this story? Could he possibly be passing judgment on this projected world?

Well, passing judgment is too simplistic for an artist of Delany’s caliber, so we can safely rule that out. Perhaps a possible answer is in the affirmation “Aye”–meaning “yes” (only opens on campus with access to The OED Online). Also, there’s a further definition that is “indicating assent” before stating “a more forcible” idea. Then again, couldn’t “Aye” be a play on “I”? This is what’s great (and frustrating) about language and studying literature–ambiguity. Words can have multiple definitions, so they can change the meaning of a sentence (or title in this case), making readers think about the multiple meanings possible. Maybe this is a lamentation of the narrator and the other spacers.

Delany’s Life

Samuel R. Delany identifies as gay, and was married to a women (who identifies as lesbian) when he wrote this short story. I know we’ve discussed that an author’s life isn’t THE place where meaning is held for a work, but Delany’s situation might help readers understand the ending where the narrator and the Greek student don’t “hook up” because there’s an impossibility of being fulfilled. Delany was married to his ex-wife, Marilyn Hacker, when he wrote this story. The two met in high school and married shortly after graduation. They actually had to go to Detroit, MI because it was illegal for blacks and whites to marry in New York…a rather surprising situation considering New York’s contemporary reputation for being progressive. Then again, New York is much bigger than New York City. Perhaps Delany’s subconscious was carried out through the narrator: As a person “in the closet,” he couldn’t quite feel fulfilled in his relationship, and, to be fair, his wife probably didn’t feel that way either.

Characters

  • Narrator–a spacer
  • Greek student–a frelk interested in the narrator
  • Other Spacers–Kelly, Lou, Bo, and Muse

Language

  • French: “une frelk” (p. 406)
  • Spanish: “una frelka” (p. 407)

Why is there a gender difference between the two languages? What comment could Delany be making about the frelks’ gender roles or social status?

“Racism and Science Fiction” by Samuel R. Delany

Delany’s essay on racism in the sci fi world is probably not new to many of you, but I think it’s helpful to reiterate the idea of systemic racism. Specifically, I want to explain that racism is an American value. It’s not a good value, but racism mediates American history, affecting all institutions and American ideology in general (remember hegemony). However, just as we can point to evidence that racism is an American value, we can also point to equality being an American value…American culture is full of these contradictions.

Here are some quotes that might help.

  • p. 1: “Racism for me has always appeared to be first and foremost a system, largely supported by material and economic conditions at work in a field of social traditions.”
  • p. 2: On lynching and “Billy the Kid claimed to have taken active part in a more than half a dozen such murders…”
  • p. 3: “[John W. Campbell] didn’t feel his readership would be able to relate to a black main character.”
    • Note the sarcasm…”No, perish the thought! Surely there was not a prejudiced bone in his body!”
  • p. 5: Isaac Asimov’s comment
  • p. 6: “…replacing them with signs saying “black literature”—the small ‘b’ on ‘black’ is a very significant letter, an attempt to ironize and de-transcendentalize the whole concept of race, to render it provisional and contingent, a significance that many young people today, white and black, who lackadaisically capitalize it, have lost track of.”
  • Politics of capitalizing
  • p. 7: “But what racism as a system does is isolate and segregate the people of one race, or group, or ethnos from another. As a system it can be fueled by chance as much as by hostility or by the best of intentions.”
  • p. 7: “Racism is a system….fueled as much by chance as by hostile intentions and equally the best intentions as well.”
  • p. 8: “Racism is as much about accustoming people to becoming used to certain racial configurations so that they are specifically not used to others….what we are combatting is called prejudice: prejudice is pre-judgment…”

One assertion Delany makes that really stands out is his point that discussions of “race” and “racism” are completely entwined:

In a society such as ours, the discourse of race is so involved and embraided with the discourse of racism that I would defy anyone ultimately and authoritatively to distinguish them in any absolute manner once and for all.

p. 8

Next Class

Don’t forget to respond to this week’s prompt before 11:00pm tonight, 1/30. We’re going to have a writing discussion for Essay #1 on Tuesday. On Thursday, we’ll be discussing the William Gibson’s work.

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